Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!linac!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!david
From: david@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov (David Robinson)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: Cnews and the cancel control command
Message-ID: <1991Feb4.205908.7048@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov>
Date: 4 Feb 91 20:59:08 GMT
References: <1991Feb4.002104.12830@wolves.uucp> <1991Feb4.185130.6956@zoo.toronto.edu>
Organization: Image Analysis Systems Group, JPL
Lines: 23

In article <1991Feb4.185130.6956@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes:
<In article <1991Feb4.002104.12830@wolves.uucp> ggw%wolves@cs.duke.edu (Gregory G. Woodbury) writes:
<>Has anyone else felt the desire to have the cancel command be a bit more
<>controlled in Cnews? ...
<
<The desire, yes... but the flesh is weak. :-)  The problem is that forging
<news articles (including control messages) is trivial, and there is no
<simple check that cannot be bypassed easily by the determined canceller.

One possible solution is to create some easy to use option that allows
system administrators to disable the automatic canceling.  Other control
messages are easily configured via shell scripts in NEWSBIN/ctl but
cancel is hardwired in to relaynews for efficiency sake.  Why not put
a simple check in relaynews to see if a NEWSBIN/ctl/cancel script
exists and run it, if not continue as things are done now?

Now if we can just give Henry and Geoff a few hundred extra paid hours
to implement all these features we would be in news heaven! :-)
-- 
David Robinson	david@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov 	{decwrl,usc,ames}!elroy!david
Disclaimer: No one listens to me anyway!
"Once a new technology rolls over you, if you're not part of the steamroller,
 you're part of the road." - Stewart Brand